Royal Mail set to ditch second class Saturday deliveries

30 January 2025, 09:19 | Updated: 30 January 2025, 09:24

Royal Mail is to be allowed to ditch second class deliveries
Royal Mail is to be allowed to ditch second class deliveries. Picture: Alamy

By StephenRigley

Royal Mail is set to be allowed to ditch Saturday deliveries for second class letters under plans being put forward by Ofcom.

Listen to this article

Loading audio...

The regulator said that after a consultation, it had provisionally concluded that reducing the second class letter service to alternate weekdays, while keeping first class deliveries six days a week, would continue to meet postal users' needs.

The watchdog also outlined plans to cut Royal Mail's delivery targets, for first class mail from 93% to 90% delivered the next day, and for second class mail from 98.5% to 95% delivered within three days.

Ofcom announces postal service reforms

Read More: Royal Mail sees parcel boost over Christmas as £3.6bn takeover nears completion

Read More: Post Office cuts 100 jobs as part of plans to add £250m to subpostmaster pay after Horizon scandal

This will bring them more in line with other international and European markets, it added.

Natalie Black, Ofcom's group director for networks and communications, said: "The world has changed - we're sending a third of the letters we were 20 years ago.

"We need to reform the postal service to protect its future and ensure it delivers for the whole of the UK.

"But we're safeguarding what matters most to people - first class mail six days a week at the same price throughout the UK, and a price cap on second class stamps."

More Latest News

See more More Latest News

Raducanu was seen wiping away her tears

Emma Raducanu breaks silence after 'fixated man' who followed her to game brings tennis star to tears

Breaking
Donald Trump has branded Zelenskyy a "dictator."

Trump labels Zelenskyy a ‘dictator,' says he owes US billions and only wants to keep the ‘gravy train’ going

Eating cheese

Eating cheese and having an open fire are factors to living a long life, study shows

Russia's President Vladimir Putin said thousands of troops have crossed the Kursk border into Ukrainian territory.

Thousands of troops storm into Ukraine in fresh attack, Russia claims as Putin insists he’s ready for talks with Zelesnkyy

'Zombie knives' at a secure police location in Birmingham.

Police chief slams sale of knives for £10 in online ‘mystery boxes’

Chengdu, Sichuan, China.

Chinese tourist village slammed for using fake snow to draw in visitors

Former Chief Whip Simon Hart has revealed details of a call from a Tory MP who asked to be saved from a brothel.

Former Chief Whip shares desperate call from Tory MP who 'needed saving from brothel with KGB agent and CCTV'

Tesco app and website.

Tesco app and website reporting issues, leaving customers unable to do online shopping

Exclusive
A graphic depiction of Israel’s military campaign against Hamas, the two documentary makers behind the project are now facing criticism over the children featured.

BBC has 'serious questions to answer' over claims Gaza documentary features Hamas leader's son, says Jon Sopel

Charlotte Peet has gone missing in Brazil.

Father of Brit journalist missing in Brazil breaks silence as he reveals moment daughter's 'trail went cold'

Avoriaz is a French mountain resort

Brit skier, 23, found dead beneath French Alps cliff after 'plunging 260ft on return from night out'

Austrian police arrest teenager over 'attack at railway station'

Isis supporting boy, 14, 'who planned attack at railway station' held by Austrian police

Janice Nix is charged with manslaughter over the death of five-year-old Andrea Bernard in 1978

Woman, 66, appears in court charged with manslaughter of five-year-old who died after scalding bath

Davi Nunes Moreira, of Planalto, Brazil, passed away seven days after injecting a solution made from a crushed butterfly into his leg.

Boy who injected himself with crushed butterfly for 'online challenge' suffered week of agonising symptoms before death

Jack Bennett pleaded guilty to sending malicious communications to the mayor of London and the Birmingham Yardley MP

Man jailed for sending malicious messages to Sir Sadiq Khan and Jess Phillips was 'radicalised online,' Mayor tells LBC

Two men have been arrested on suspicion of murder over the stabbing of a 20-year-old man in Hackney.

Two men arrested on suspicion of murder after 20-year-old dies in east London stabbing